EMC, Unisys
Adding Tech Jobs

    Among the companies cited in April 29, 2004, Wall Street Journal coverage of a tech job recovery was Hopkinton, Mass.-based data storage company EMC Corp., whose senior director of global real estate, David Streeter, is an IAMC member. The paper reported that EMC added some 300 engineering and sales jobs during the first quarter, half of them in the U.S. (A 250,000-sq.-ft. [23,225-sq.-m.] building EMC leases in Boston was recently purchased by Wells REIT II.)
    The day before, Blue Bell, Pa.-based Unisys Corp. announced it would invest more than $180 million in employment and other expenses over the next five years at its first international technology development center in Bangalore, India. Slated to employ 2,000 people, the facility will provide software development, business process outsourcing, maintenance and technical help desk services.

IAMC Member companies AIG and Pfizer have been added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average index, along with Verizon. Dropped from the index were AT&T, Eastman Kodak and International Paper, which had been part of the Dow Jones averages since 1939, 1930 and 1956, respectively.

    Cal Killen, vice president of Unisys Global Services, said the center would primarily serve the financial sector, as well as public sector work in the U.S., Malaysia and London. Until now, the company's presence in India consisted of sales offices in Mumbai and Delhi. Rich L'Ecuyer, corporate director, real estate operations for Unisys, is an IAMC member.

 

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    It acquired Keystone Property Trust for $1.6 billion. It acquired 186 acres (75 hectares) in the old Keystone stomping grounds of the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania. It entered a major new build-to-suit agreement in Sweden. It hired a new senior vice president for the U.S. Southeast (Richard Strader). It released major reports on

warehouse/distribution markets and development pipelines in 30 major U.S. markets. And that was just two months in the spring for ProLogis.

Among the many actions recently taken by ProLogis was the acquisition of 186 acres (75 hectares) in Lehigh Valley, Pa.

    Among the highlights of the research reports:

    According to Leonard Sahling, first vice president of ProLogis and head of the ProLogis Research Group, "Last year, developers continued to exercise general restraint and self-discipline in most U.S. markets. This trend of controlled development is a welcome departure from the past exuberance that has fueled the boom-and-bust cycles that have dogged the commercial real estate industry."
    ProLogis Senior Vice President Gregory Arnold, of distribution capital Cranbury, N.J., is an IAMC member. Look for more coverage of the company's multiple activities in the Logistics & Transportation industry spotlight in the September 2004 issue of Site Selection.

    According to the Associated Press, new rules that went into effect earlier this year at the U.S. Labor Dept. could make a major dent in how states fund re-training programs for laid-off workers.
    In the past, states were allowed to bundle groups of laid-off workers from different companies in order to reach a 50-person threshold required to have access to the federal training funds. The grants, often called national emergency grants, totaled $614 million between 2000 and 2002. The Labor Dept. contends that typical layoffs should be handled through funds it provides to state work force agencies. Those funds total $1.78 billion in the current fiscal year, but the Bush administration has requested $1.1 billion for the next fiscal year. That's part of an overall fiscal 2005 work force training and employment budget request of $6.2 billion -- down 2 percent from 2004 and 10 percent from 2002.